Four environmental activists in Vietnam are in prison for “tax evasion.” But that is not the real reason. They were close associates working on a campaign to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal, and they were trying to build a civil society movement. Three of them had created nongovernmental organizations and the fourth created an independent online video channel. All pressed for change under Vietnam’s authoritarian state.
The Communist Party of Vietnam holds a monopoly on power and frowns on bloggers and activists who speak out. Vietnam holds 208 activists as political prisoners. In a revelatory new report, Ben Swanton of the human rights group the 88 Project shows how the authorities weaponized the tax evasion law to silence the environmentalists, a tactic favored more and more by dictators seeking to suppress dissent and criticism.